Spotlight on new faculty: Per Bloland and the electroacoustic music festival

09/18/2012

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Per Bloland (performing with laptop)

photo: Lisa Leong

Per Bloland joined Miami in August as assistant professor of technology and music theory. A composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music, he is organizer of Miami's first student electroacoustic music festival, held Sept. 21-22.

Prior to joining Miami, Bloland served as visiting assistant professor of computer music in the department of technology in music and related arts (TIMARA) at Oberlin Conservatory.

His students will just have time to meet him this semester before he takes a research leave for the spring semester: He was awarded a Musical Research Residency at the Institut de Recherche et Coordination acoustique/Musique (ICRAM) in Paris for spring 2013.

Next fall his work will be performed at the 2013 International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) World New Music Days in Slovakia and Austria.
His recent composition, for flute and percussion, “ ...walk now and then into the breath that blows coldly past...” was selected for performance at the event, to be held in November 2013.

Bloland's compositions range from short intimate solo pieces to works for large orchestra.

Score excerpt from Bloland's composition

photo: Newmusicbox.org

They incorporate video, dance and custom-built electronics, and draw on a variety of influences from other art forms.

He received his doctorate in composition from Stanford University in 2009 and his master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 2004. He is currently a board officer for the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS).

Bloland responds:"The simplest answer is that it’s 'classical' music made with electronics: synthesizers, recorded sounds, laptop hackers, whatever. But that doesn’t convey much about the actual sounds.

I can say that these pieces (in the electroacoustic festival) are all made by young composers experimenting with a wide variety of sounds, some beautiful, some harsh and intense, and often very unusual.

This is probably not what you think of when you think of classical music, and would very likely freak out your parents."